Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

In Act III, Scene 1, M. Jourdain prepares to go for a walk to display his new suit. He orders the lackeys to join him so everyone can see that he has servants. As the act moves into Scene Two, M. Jourdain’s maid, Nicole, enters. She laughs hysterically at his outfit, apologizing and swearing that she isn’t trying to mock him. Indignant, he orders her to prepare the house for his special guest. This stops Nicole’s laughter, as she exclaims, “Ah, by my faith, I don’t feel like laughing any more. All your guests make such a disorder here that the word ‘company’ is enough to put me in a bad humor” (47). M. Jourdain asks why he should “shut [his] door to everyone for [her] sake?” and Nicole responds, “You should at least shut it to some people” (47).

In Scene 3, Madame Jourdain, M. Jourdain’s wife, castigates him for his foolishness. She asks, “What’s this, what’s this, husband, this outfit you have on there? Don’t you care what people think of you when you are got up like that? And do you want yourself laughed at everywhere?” (48). Mme. Jourdain asserts, “I am scandalized at the life you lead” (48). Nicole agrees. Together, the two women chastise M. Jourdain for hiring all of the Masters, who they claim cannot help him. He attempts to show them what he has learned, and the women are unimpressed. Mme. Jourdain calls him foolish, and blames his foolishness on his insistence upon trying to consort with nobility. She mentions his friend, a count, who borrows his money but never repays him. M. Jourdain bids her to be quiet as the count himself is approaching. Mme. Jourdain exclaims, “That’s all we needed! He’s come again perhaps to borrow something from you” (55).

As the play transitions into Scene Four, Count Doranté enters. He compliments M. Jourdain’s suit, which M. Jourdain takes as vindication against his wife’s insults. Doranté tells M. Jourdain, “You are the man in the world I esteem most, and I was speaking of you again this morning in the bedchamber of the King” (56). The count tells M. Jourdain to keep his hat on, which he had removed as a sign of respect. Doranté claims that he would like to pay off the debts he has accrued through M. Jourdain’s loans. They go back and forth, calculating the amount of various loans until they reach a total of 15,800 livres. Doranté says, “to which add two hundred pistoles that you are going to give me” (59), promising to repay him “at the first opportunity” (59). Mme. Jourdain insists, “He’ll drain you to the last sou” (60), but M. Jourdain shushes her. M. Jourdain leaves to get the money for this latest loan, and Doranté asks Mme. Jourdain about her daughter, suggesting that she “come with her one of these days to see the ballet and the comedy they are putting on at court” (61). She replies, “Yes truly, we have a great desire to laugh, a very great desire to laugh” (61).

In Scene 6, M. Jourdain returns with the money he promised Count Doranté. Mme. Jourdain rejects his offer to give her a seat at the royal entertainments. Doranté takes M. Jourdain aside, informing him that the marchioness will arrive soon to see the performance that will take place. Doranté reveals that M. Jourdain gave him a diamond to give to the marchioness eight days ago, claiming that she had only agreed to accept it that day. Doranté insists that he worked hard to convince her, out of friendship to M. Jourdain. M. Jourdain asserts that he would do anything to procure her affections because “a woman of quality has ravishing charms for me and it’s an honor I would purchase at any price” (65). Meanwhile, Mme. Jourdain has been complaining to Nicole about the count’s presence and sends Nicole to eavesdrop. M. Jourdain tells the count that his wife will be spending dinnertime at her sister’s house so that he will be free to entertain the marchioness. M. Jourdain catches Nicole listening and sends her off.

Scene 7 begins when Nicole returns to Mme. Jourdain, confiding, “I believe something’s afoot, since they’re talking of some event where they did not want you to be” (65). Mme. Jourdain has known for some time that there is “some love-affair in the making” (66). She suggests that they go to see her daughter Lucile, who is being courted by a man named Cléonte. Mme. Jourdain is happy with the potential match, and sends Nicole to tell Cléonte to speak to her, so they can make arrangements.

In Scene 8, Nicole finds Cléonte, but Cléonte is angry. He calls Nicole a traitor, demanding, “Get out, I tell you, and go tell your faithless mistress that she will never again in her life deceive the too trusting Cléonte” (66). Nicole appeals to Covielle, Cléonte’s valet, whom she intends to marry. Covielle responds with similar anger, calling her a hussy and ordering, “Go, quickly, out of my sight, villainess, and leave me in peace” (66). Confused, Nicole exits to tell Mme. Jourdain.

After Nicole leaves, Scene Nine sees Cléonte and Covielle furiously lamenting the wrongs they believe have been done to them both. Cléonte claims that despite all of his love and attention, Lucile, “the faithless one averts her eyes and hurries by as if she had never seen me in her life!” (67). Covielle complains that he, too, was a passionate suitor, but that Nicole also ignored him. Cléonte suspects that she loves the count and is “dazzled by social standing” (68), resolving to end their relationship before she can do it first. Cléonte asks Covielle to say all of the terrible and unattractive things he can think of about Lucile. Covielle does so, but Cléonte contradicts each assertion. The conversation devolves into unabashed praise of her, and Covielle says, “I see clearly how it goes, you want to go on loving her” (71). Cléonte responds, “Me, I’d like better to die; and I am going to hate her as much as I loved her” (71).

Scene 10 begins as Nicole and Lucile approach the two men. Covielle and Cléonte resolve not to speak to the women. Nicole and Lucile ask them why they are so angry. At first, they refuse to respond but they can’t stay quiet, accusing the women of treachery. Lucile and Nicole suggest that the two men are angry at their most recent interactions, in which they walked quickly by without speaking. They start to explain, but the two men refuse to listen, insisting that they can’t hear anything that Nicole and Lucile say. Finally, the women decide to walk away, and Cléonte asks for the explanation. Nicole and Lucile tell them that they no longer want to explain, and the men beg. Cléonte announces, “I am going far from you to die of sorrow and love” (75) and Covielle proclaims that he will follow. Lucile admonishes the men for refusing to listen in the first place. She elucidates:

The incident you complain of was caused this morning by the presence of an old aunt who insists that the mere approach of a man dishonors a woman—an aunt who constantly delivers sermons to us on this text, and tells us that all men are like devils we must flee (77).

Satisfied with Lucile’s excuse, the men profess their love again. In Scene 11, Mme. Jourdain greets Cléonte, suggesting that since her husband is approaching, he should ask to marry their daughter. He agrees rapturously. Scene Twelve begins as Cléonte requests that M. Jourdain allow him to marry Lucile. M. Jourdain asks if he is a gentleman. Cléonte explains that he takes issue with how the word “gentleman” is used, finding “all imposture undignified for an honest man” (79). Although he comes from a noble family, served in the army for six years, and has a reasonably high status in society, he does not consider himself to be a gentleman. M. Jourdain balks, exclaiming, “My daughter is not for you” (79). Mme. Jourdain interjects, reminding her husband that they are from bourgeois families, and that both of their fathers were merchants. M. Jourdain stresses that his son-in-law must be a gentleman. M. Jourdain claims that he wants to make his daughter a marchioness. Mme. Jourdain tells her husband that she does not want Lucile to marry above her station and be forced into all of the snobbery and haughtiness that might make her children ashamed of the Jourdains as their grandparents. Mme. Jourdain tells Lucile to insist that she will marry no one but Cléonte.

In Scene 13, Covielle reprimands Cléonte for telling the truth to M. Jourdain instead of humoring him. Covielle tells Cléonte that he has an idea to trick M. Jourdain stating, “I have the actors, I have the costumes ready, just leave it to me” (82), declining to elaborate further. Scene 14 sees M. Jourdain lamenting, “I would have given two fingers of a hand to have been born a count or a marquis” (83). His lackey announces that the count has arrived with a lady, and M. Jourdain says, “My Goodness, I have some orders to give” (84) and promises to return.

In Scene 15, the lackey relays the message to Count Doranté and Dorimène. The marchioness reveals that Doranté has been courting her on behalf of himself rather than M. Jourdain. She tells him that she is afraid that all of his attention will lead to a marriage proposal and that she would like to continue avoiding marriage. Dorimène continues to resist Doranté’s professions of love, and Scene 16 starts as M. Jourdain returns. M. Jourdain greets her with excessive formality, and Doranté says to Dorimène, “As you can see, this good bourgeois is ridiculous enough in all his manners” (86). The count then takes M. Jourdain aside and tells him not to mention the diamond (which Doranté pretended was a gift from himself) to Dorimène, as that would be “loutish” and “to act as a gallant man, [he] must act as though it were not [him] who made her this present” (87). Dorimène suggests that they eat and watch the performance, which makes up the Third Interlude.